Letters to the editor from July 13, 2024

As the deadline for Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBR) reform in Congress quickly approaches, patients like me are desperately waiting for our politicians to act. We have been exploited for too long and will not stand idly by while lawmakers miss another opportunity to help our state’s patients.

Here are the facts: Just three pharmacy benefits managers control four out of five drugs on the market.

Furthermore, these three companies are tied to some of the largest insurance companies and pharmacies in the country and work with their cronies to increase their profits and rip off patients like me.

PBMs and insurers use their dominant market power to game the system, and for the past few decades, regulators have been asleep at the wheel. These middlemen force drug manufacturers to offer cheaper discounts, only to pocket the bulk of the savings instead of passing them on to customers. PBM companies are not capitalists, they are corrupt. It’s time we stop their selfish schemes that are harming patients across New Jersey, and I urge you to sign the DRUG Act. This bill could bring more competition, transparency, and accountability to our health care system. Our politicians must work to pass this bill before it’s too late.

When will people finally learn that they must obey the demands of the police when confronted with them – rightly or wrongly?

We just had another case involving the New Castle County Police Department in Delaware. Officers stopped a vehicle for a violation and the driver resisted the officers’ commands. This resulted in an altercation that required the driver to be detained.

There are numerous videos showing three police officers trying to subdue this person. There is a consensus as to why it took three police officers to get the perpetrator under control. Don’t try to judge these officers until you’ve been in their shoes.

It looks like these officers will likely face disciplinary action or lose their jobs while performing their duty. And as in most cases, the municipality will pay compensation to the offender while the officers will be punished for doing their jobs. We must protect the Blues, because without them we are a lawless country.

You know, it’s politically dangerous to put your arm around someone and have your picture taken. That became clear to Barack Obama and President Biden when Obama put his arm around Joe Biden at a fundraiser in Los Angeles on June 18. Obama walked Joe down the steps off the stage, and the video was shown millions of times to imply that President Biden needed “help” to leave the stage and walk down the steps.

Obama has apparently forgotten the windy day on October 18, 2012, on the New Jersey coast after Hurricane Sandy, when President Obama put his arm around Governor Chris Christie and the photo, published millions of times, was the “kiss of death” for the Republican governor of New Jersey.

Obama has apparently “forgotten” that the picture of him putting his arm around the governor hurt Christie terribly politically. Maybe Obama needs a “cognitive” test because he has apparently “forgotten” how much political damage putting his arm around someone and having a photo taken can do.

Starting August 1, the Biden administration’s new Title IX rules will require girls to compete in high school or college sports and share locker rooms/restrooms with biological males who identify as female. However, parents should know that there are recently court-ordered protections to these new rules. The U.S. District Court in Kansas issued an order prohibiting the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing the new Title IX regulations at all schools in our country that have at least ONE student whose mother is a member of the nonprofit advocacy group Moms for Liberty. The protections also apply to any school with at least one student who is a member of Young Americans for Freedom or Female Athletes United. To receive protections for your daughter at her school, all you have to do is sign up to be a member of Moms for Liberty, but registration must be done by July 15.